UFC Fight Night 181 will take place in Abu Dhabi. Chan Sung Jung faces Brian Ortega in the headliner and ‘The Korean Zombie’ will be fighting slightly closer to home than his opponent.
UFC 253 will be the first of of five events the promotion has scheduled for the Middle East. The last six shows put have taken place in Las Vegas but this month Yas Island will start hosting fight cards again.
There are two more cards scheduled for the APEX Centre in September but after that the promotion is returning to Abu Dhabi. In the UFC 253 main event Israel Adesanya is set to defend his middleweight title against Paulo Costa.
Meanwhile China’s Heili Alateng faces Casey Kenney in a bantamweight bout at UFC 252. Also in action at UFC Fight Night 181 will be Fil-Am bantamweight Mark Striegl who has been matched with Said Nurmagomedov.
Among the five events confirmed for Abu Dhabi is UFC 254. This has the potential to be the biggest PPV event of the year and is headlined by a lightweight unification bout between regular champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and interim champion Justin Gaethje.
